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Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.

A senior federal official illicitly steered a federal contract to a friend and former employer in whose Washington, D.C. home she was staying rent-free, according to a new federal watchdog report.

The Interior Department’s inspector general faulted Jamie Reaser, the executive director of the department’s National Invasive Species Council, with violating ethics and procurement rules. Reaser, the IG wrote, shared “sensitive procurement information” with her friend, who is not named in the report, and instructed Interior officials to steer the $20,000 contract to him. Reaser attempted to land him an additional $25,000 contract months later, but the payment was never issued.